Enviro-Nut Wants To Do Away With Kitty Cats

The madness continues. Some environmental nutcase in New Zealand wants to do away with cats because cats kill birds.

Gareth Morgan has a simple dream: a New Zealand free of pet cats that threaten native birds. But the environmental advocate has triggered a claws-out backlash with his new anti-feline campaign.

Morgan called on his countrymen Tuesday to make their current cat their last in order to save the nation’s unique bird species. He set up a website, called Cats To Go, depicting a tiny kitten with red devil’s horns. The opening line: “That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.”

He doesn’t recommended people euthanize their current cats — “Not necessarily but that is an option” are the site’s exact words — but rather neuter them and not replace them when they die. Morgan, an economist and well-known businessman, also suggests people keep cats indoors and that local governments make registration mandatory. (Read More)

He’s suggesting that cats in New Zealand are a so-called invasive species: They have been transplanted to New Zealand, where birds who had not evolved to deal with feline predators are now being wiped out by them.

Cats never existed in New Zealand until humans brought them there.

There are many other examples of this. The brown tree snake hitchhiked to Guam on boats during World War II. By now it has wiped out most of the bird population there, which had never had to deal with snake predators like that one before. New Zealand could end up the same way, thanks to cats.